Search and Destroy: French Ye Ye/Pop

search: 60's michel polnareff, all of france gall, emperor norton's pop romantique compilation

destroy: the ones we always hear, jacques dutronc, 70's polnareff, ultra chicks comps (contain more misses than hits)

There's this absolutely hilarious clip of a very young René Angelil (Céline Dion's manager/husband) as a member of Les Baronnets, lip- synching to "C'est fou mais c'est tout", their version of The Beatles' "Hold Me Tight", on a TV show, and they're doing these little dance moves that look pretty absurd to start with, except that the guy in the middle had only been part of the group for a day or two, so while the other two are doing their thing, this particular guy is looking in the opposite direction at some off-camera person showing him the moves, and he's trying to follow, but in the most feeble, out-of-sync manner imaginable - it's a freaking classic.

She's played with Jonathan Richman, The Headcoatees *and* she sings the title credits for 'I M Weasel' on the The Cow and Chicken Show, which wins her extra cool points in my book...

Personally, I'd recommend you avoid her recent work with Etienne Daho ('Genre Humaine' etc).

I reckon Alain Bashung is criminally unknown outside of France, as he would have fitted perfectly on a label like Mute... As for older music, there is always Barbara...

I'm also glad Ethan put in a word for MC Solaar; the one summer I spent in France he was what I most looked forward to hearing on the radio. He also made one of the best, most minimalistic videos I've ever seen. (This was the summer when "Suck My Pussy" was a Top Ten Song--used to love hearing the radio and television announcements.)

April March is one of those people you wish so hard were just a little bit better, though she does such occasionally perfect pieces of pop pastiche you can't help but want to rally 'round her.

Claudine Longet has never been given her full due. I'm afraid Andy Williams tainted her career more than some silly accidental murder... If you want to go even farther back, there's Charles Trenet, whose complete oeuvre I plowed through recently. He was probably the progenitor of Jacques, Serge, and all the rest. "Chanson," however is whole 'nother story; Trenet is best in the earliest recordings when he's still both gritty and apparently influenced by Bing Crosby (who, after all, supposedly invented microphone singing as opposed to stage singing).

There are of course also many African artists who sing in French at least some of the time. I couldn't begin to start listing them, especially since I'm so far from my music collection. Montreal had a big African music festival a couple of summers ago when I was there, so those good Canadians must be keeping the faith.

I don't read any music magazines, listen to the radio, go to concerts, or even try to keep up with most current music any longer... so I'm grateful for all the comments on this thread and others. "I'm not an expert, but I play one on the Internet."

That's probably #2 for me -- fuck is that song gorgeous. Weirdness: I was just in the middle of listening to an Alan King mix when I started thinking about tracking down Dego's DEMF set to hear that very song in the context of the rest of that set. Just as I was about to stop King's mix, "Deep Burnt" began to slip in.

#1 is "Disco Circus" by Martin Circus. Weeeeeeeee!!!!

but france gall's "merci, herr marquis" smokes (and i'm totally disinterested in the potential kitsch value. well, almost totally)

have we talked about jacqueline taieb? ("7 heures du matin" etc.)

i forget who does "allez, tapez dans les mains" but it's way catchy, hand-claps and all

this needs to played at every summer camp dance ever. also every apartment party.

Fuck you, Dutronc is great!

If you can, seek out the double CD comp. of some 60's / 70's stuff; 'Completement Dutronc'.

As for Keren Ann, I have her debut CD and find it quite ordinary.
For contemporary French female singers, I'd recommend Fabienne Delsol and Camille.

Jacqueline Taeib is superb, I am listening to her 'Complete Masterworks' right now.

do you have this on cd, melody? i went looking all over paris for a taeib collection, to no avail. i would love a copy. (i would type "hint, hint" here but that doesn't really qualify as a "hint.")

Amatuer(ist)... no I don't have it on CD yet unfortunately. I downloaded it from someone on soulseek, and, as with anything I download I have full intention to purchase it... if only I could find it! amazon.fr is out of stock.
http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00007B5VR/baragogo-21/402-6444607-3636956 I found one copy on gemm.com, but it says that lately the seller has not been filling his orders, so I wouldn't risk it.

I'm happy to pass on copied files to people who are keen to sample ... just let me know if this discussion board is friendly to filesharing talk before I say anymore.

Oh, and BTW the emusic.com link someone gave above has a lot of Brigitte Fontaine mp3s available. When you join for a free trial they give you 50 free mp3s... you could get 2 or 3 entire albums of hers that way.

AND there's a seller on ebay who sells the Femmes de Paris compilation (new) which has many of the ye-ye girls mentioned above. I bought the Gentlemen De Paris comp. and was very happy with it - has Gainsbourg, Dutronc, Antoine, Edouard (who parodies Antoine), and the very expressive and highly entertaining Jacques Filh.

Another very cool ye-ye girl is Stella, whose songs made fun of the ye-ye scene and its adoption of American culture. Here's a recent interview with her: http://chachacharming.com/article.php?id=23

I should sell mine then!

Here is the rather extraordinary Tienou song:
http://s28.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3VVOEV57452182IRF1AUTAQ3UA

Anyone heard much Gillian Hills? I like her vocal style.

Also good are the Pop-a-Paris compilations.

Drugburn

soulseex is the best.

ANYWAY, I know she's not French - but Belgian - but I love Jo Lemaire. Very moody.

oddly i heard this on the radio about 30 minutes ago and googled her.

like the covers on those femme de paris comps.

anyone familiar with Sylvie Vartan? I know she had a long career, and even went disco in the end. (as we're all prone to, granted)

I bought this compilation a few years ago http://www.discogs.com/release/744500 - et c'est poptastique!

anyone who loves this stuff needs to make their way over to http://spikedcandy.blog-city.com/ NOW, where you can find the excellent Swinging Mademoiselle comps.

and to start it off:
search: 60's michel polnareff, all of france gall, emperor norton's pop romantique compilation

destroy: the ones we always hear, jacques dutronc, 70's polnareff, ultra chicks comps (contain more misses than hits)

― marianna maclean

Jacques Dutronc song Le Responsable is amazing, definitely search. do not destroy.

Is this the Allez tapez dans les mains mentioned above?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYsW5wtqB6k

she is from catalunya, I overheard this one at a bar in barcelona summers ago and fell in love with it.

RFI Ye-ye/Garage cover of “My Generation.”

This seems to provide the answer: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/intothemusic/the-girls-of-y%C3%A9-y%C3%A9-and-french-pop/5440214

Jacqueline Taieb, “7 Heures Du Matin”

that one really has the lumbering throb Liminanas go for!